Antifungal drug discovery and development company F2G (Manchester, UK) has announced the appointment of John H. Rex (right) as chief medical officer. Rex is a distinguished research scientist, having previously served as senior vice president and head of infection, global medicines development at AstraZeneca until October 2016. Prior to joining AstraZeneca in 2003, he was professor of medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston.

“John's guidance and insight have been instrumental in shaping F2G's development and regulatory strategy. We are delighted that he is now able to increase his commitment to the company as we progress our new class of antifungal agents into our next clinical trials,” said Ian Nicholson, CEO of F2G.

Cellular and immunotherapy developer Gamida Cell (Jerusalem) has named Julian Adams as chairman of the board of directors. With more than 30 years of experience in drug discovery and development, Adams currently serves as president of R&D at Infinity Pharmaceuticals. Previously, he was senior vice president of drug discovery and development at Millennium Pharmaceuticals.

Catherine Bovenizer has joined gene therapy developer Renova Therapeutics (San Diego) as CFO. She brings 20 years of experience in financial management for a variety of public and private biotech and software companies, most recently serving as vice president of finance and chief accounting officer at Apricus Biosciences.

Predictive drug discovery company Compugen (Holon, Israel) has appointed Kirk A. Christoffersen senior vice president, corporate & business development. Christoffersen has extensive experience in the biopharma industry, having held various executive roles at GlobeImmune, OSI Pharmaceuticals, Gilead Sciences and NeXstar Pharmaceuticals.

Mission Therapeutics (Cambridge, UK) has announced the appointment of former OSI Pharmaceuticals CEO Colin Goddard as non-executive chairman. He joined the board of Mission Therapeutics as a non-executive director in July 2015. Michael Moore, Mission's founder chairman, will continue on the board and transition to the role of deputy chairman. Goddard currently serves as chairman & CEO of BlinkBio and as a director on the board of Endocyte.

As part of a series A extension financing that raised $25 million, Larry Lasky (right) has joined the board of directors of Revolution Medicines (Redwood City, CA, USA). Lasky, a partner at The Column Group, was a scientist at Genentech for 20 years. From 2008 to 2014, he was a partner at US Venture Partners. He currently sits on the boards of Carmot Therapeutics, eFFECTOR Therapeutics, Ribon Therapeutics, ORIC Pharmaceuticals, Peloton Therapeutics and OncoMed Pharmaceuticals.

Anti-infective developer Entasis Therapeutics (Waltham, MA, USA) has announced the appointment of Greg Norden to its board of directors. Norden has over 20 years of experience in the healthcare industry. He is currently managing director of G9 Capital Group and from 1989 to 2010, he held senior positions with Wyeth/American Home Products, most recently as Wyeth's senior vice president and CFO.

Lesley Russell has been elected to the board of directors of Enanta Pharmaceuticals (Watertown, MA, USA). She currently serves as chief medical officer at specialty pharmaceutical company Innocoll Holdings. Previously, she held the role of COO at TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals from 2013 to 2016 and senior vice president and global head of R&D at Teva Pharmaceuticals from 2011 to 2012.

J. Michael Ryan (right) has been appointed as chief medical officer of Asceneuron (Lausanne, Switzerland). He joins the company from Novartis, where he was vice president in the neuroscience development franchise and therapeutic area head for neurodegeneration. He also held a number of senior clinical R&D positions at Pfizer, Wyeth Research and MSD Research Laboratories.

Illumina (San Diego) has named Jonathan Seaton senior vice president for corporate and business development. He joins the company from Becton, Dickinson and Company where he was vice president and head of strategy and business development for the life sciences segment.

Nurix (San Francisco) has named Robert Tjian to its board of directors. Tjian was a co-founder of Tularik and most recently served as president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute from 2009 to 2016. After leaving HHMI, he joined The Column Group as a discovery partner in September 2016. He currently serves as scientific advisor to the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the BioHub, and continues to serve on the faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.

Ayoxxa Biosystems (Cologne, Germany) has announced that Rodney Turner has been named CEO on a permanent basis, following his initial assumption of the duties of CEO in October 2016. Turner had served as an independent board member since July 2014. He was a senior corporate development executive at Life Technologies from 2006 to 2014 and previously served as a business development executive at a number of biotechs including Evotec and Fluidigm.

Nadia Whittley has been named CEO of Arquer Diagnostics (Sunderland, UK). She brings over 25 years of experience in the life sciences sector, most recently as partner and managing director, Europe, of Tefen Management Consulting. Previously, she was CEO at Alium Medical and managing director, medical devices EAME at Allergan.